I really wish HN wouldn't fall for these cookie cutter press release strategies that catch people on buzzy, sciency vaportalk. eg "They'll have to rewrite the textbooks", pffft.

If this was VC funding mechanics or technical architecture articles, this kind of stuff wouldn't fly. So why are these self-promoting research articles the exception?

VC funding mechanics and technical architecture don't have the wide human interest as medical scientist. Everybody has a body after all.

So a larger proportion of medical topic articles for non-doctors get written to be consumed by least common denominator readers. My impression is that there are fewer 'informed enthusiasts' and 'pro-sumers' on medical topics compared to, say, personal computing or photography.